Several members of Belarusian civil society called on the EU to do more to help the population on Friday 16 October at a hearing during the Foreign Affairs Committee and Sub-Committee on Human Rights on the fight against impunity in Belarus.
“The EU should activate all possible levers and provide for a range of possible measures”, argued Harry Pahaniaila, head of the legal committee of the Belarusian Helsinki Committee.
The director of the Viasna centre, Alès Bialiatski, called for further penalties. “There are more than 500 people persecuted on political grounds. Political pressure should not be weakened”, he explained. “One of the levers for releasing political prisoners would be to put Mr Lukashenko under pressure to start considering a dialogue”, he added. In his view, cooperation between the EU and the United States is needed to punish the oligarchs close to Lukashenko, who trade on both continents. “This would be a major blow to Lukashenko and his family and would prompt them to release prisoners”, he said, noting that it had worked in 2011.
For human rights lawyer Eugenia Andreyuk, the European Parliament should set up a board of inquiry into the situation in Belarus. “This could help civil society to trace and document human rights violations”, she explained, although such a request is expected to be considered by the Conference of Presidents shortly.
Mr Pahaniaila is of the opinion that “a centre should be created that will collect the evidence, documenting the regime's crimes, which will be necessary for bringing cases before the General Court and for prosecution”. “In our view, this could lead to a change in the situation; send a message that impunity ends and that sooner or later those responsible will be tried and punished”, he explained.
Andreyuk also called on MEPs “to urge (their) governments to initiate proceedings before international criminal courts”. (Original version in French by Camille-Cerise Gessant)